Jerry’s movements have become S-L-O-W at best. What I mean by that is that IF he gets around at all, it is slow..slow..slow. Sort of like our golf cart...just kidding...sort of like a battery running down. Believe me, as a caregiver, it takes a lot of energy to move so slow all day long. Last night, Mark wanted to do a little entertaining. He’s met some of our friends in the past and wanted to catch up with them. So we invited one couple over to cook and eat shrimp on the deck. This couple totally understands the Jerry dilemma and they don’t even flinch when Jerry slurps his ice cream. When the ice cream spills all over his mat, it just gets rolled up and we continue on.

As Mark and I mentally prepared for the evening, we thought that maybe Jerry needed some sort of caffein boost to make it through the evening. Hey. What about Excedrine? So, after nap time, I fixed Jerry a little snack and gave him some Excedrine. It worked. (Think relative.) His eyes brightened up a little! So much that he even tried to engage. A little. In fact, he even thought my friend was me, and tried to talk to her. Then, said, “Oh. Excuse me.”

After we ate, Mark turned on some fabulous old western Bob WIlls music. Jerry’s dad was a country western singer 80 years ago and Jerry grew up with guitar pickin’ in his living room for years. This was old Texas Swing music and Jerry was in his element. Once his foot started tapping, then his hands started clapping and his face began to smile. He was coming alive and then the party began. So we all danced around to the other side of the deck and rocked to old Texas swing music under the stars until midnight. The leg never did stop tapping until the barn door closed and the lights were out.